The next big step is to find out if somewhere along their educational journey, they missed out on some very basic element.
If your child is beyond grade two then go back to the basics and try to determine what is missing. Whether it is in spelling, reading, math, study skills, or writing problems — it is vital to find out if an underlying learning skill was missed.

Make sure they can:

• say the alphabet and alphabetize words
• count to one hundred
• add and subtract basic math facts,
• tell time
• read grade level words
• write a sentence

Sometimes just catching a single missing element can make all the difference. However, if there are a number of educational elements missing — this site is designed to help teach the basics to students that are having difficulties in all areas.

I worked with a grade six girl who was able to write stories beyond her grade level. She was, however, doing very poorly in school. Her mother complained that she took too long to get down to doing her homework and that, when she did get everything together, she spent forever arranging her work area, erasing a mistake, etc. At this time I had not met the girl, and thought that she might need special help. I asked her mom to bring me some of her school work and especially things that had errors — it is very important to look at the mistakes that students make to see if there is a pattern. I could tell by just looking at her work that this was a very bright young girl, as noted in her written work. I could also tell that she had missed some basic math so she was probably stalling rather than being just a slow worker. As it turned out, I was right in my assessment.
The basics that were missing, in this case, were basic math skills and methods for studying for exams. This lovely grade six child had to return to her old flash cards and go back to working on her +3’s. She could, given enough time, figure out how to add 8+3 but it was taking too long — her stalling techniques included dropping her pencil to allow her time to add the numbers by counting up on her fingers.

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Go to Reading Skills for more information and teaching techniques.
Go to Math Skills for more information and teaching techniques.

See our Teaching Resources for worksheets, lesson plans, special education resources, etc.

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